Wireless Carrier

	Overview
	Clients: Wireless Service Provider
	Industry: Telecommunications
	Business Challenges: Ensure that Highly Integrated System was Tuned to Deliver Maximum Performance
	Services Delivered: APT Performance
	Results: Identified nine major errors Tuned system so that it would scale to expected loads $1.2 million in annual savings on software and hardware licenses Delivered reliable, re-usable performance validation and optimization methodology

One of the world's largest wireless service providers, with over 20,000,000 customers and $15 billion in revenues, relies on technology for every aspect of their day-to-day business. As such, their IT infrastructure is the backbone of the entire company. In an industry where double digit churn rates are a reality, servicing customers in the most effective and expedient manner is critical to the success of the company.

Challenge
As a result of this reality, the performance of this client's Siebel Call Center system was absolutely mission critical in achieving their objective of delivering high quality customer service. As a long standing Siebel customer, they had reaped many of the application's functional benefits, but they were challenged in their ability to tune the system to achieve its maximum level of performance, largely because of the various other complex IT systems with which it was integrated.

As they were in the process of upgrading from Siebel 6.3 to 7.5, they realized that they had an opportunity to optimize their system and reduce operational inefficiencies and costs. They turned to the experts in this field, FocusFrame, for leadership and guidance through this challenging effort.

Action
As leaders in delivering Business Technology Optimization services, FocusFrame was able to employ their proven APT™ Methodology to enhance the systems performance. They started by creating a baseline performance benchmark for the system under peak loads and then focused on identifying bottlenecks within the configuration. Finally, they established a standard set of repeatable and reusable stress tests in order ensure the system's performance over time.

Using their rigorous validation methodology, the FocusFrame team unearthed a number of key issues that were minimizing the reliability of the system. These included reducing latency between Vitria and Siebel, lowering spikes in CPU usage, and seven other major problems. The team then set about the task of turning these bottlenecks around so that the entire integrated system operated at its maximum level of potential.

	APT in Action
	Approach: Model current and future transaction forecasts Mirror production hardware capacity Excercised validation with true user experience
	People: Analysts define requirements and design scripts Engineers build scripts and program complex script statements Business analysts work with client to define business requirements
	Technology: Siebel 6.3 Call Center Integrated systems included Vitria, Numeritrack, and Atlys LoadRunner used for Automated Performance Testing Perl scripts to inject data and create load SQL scripts to simulate user experience and expand database validation

Value Delivered
Taking the time to tune systems to work at their optimal level of performance truly paid off in this case. Not only did FocusFrame deliver a scalable system, but they also were able to save the client $1.2 Million in annual hardware and software licensing fees. All nine major issues were resolved and this improved performance by 356% in some cases. According to the client's Director of IT, "This was the most successful project in company history."